Hi Folks Who says there aren't benefits to shoveling snow? After almost ten years living here, and spending thousands of hours birding in the yard, I finally got my first WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS! But even more amazingly I had SEVEN flocks fly over in just thirty minutes this morning. The flocks varied in size from about 30 birds to 4 individuals. All groups were doing what I consider a typical morning flight pattern for migrants in my yard... heading due west. In addition to the crossbills four small groups of COMMON REDPOLLS flew west during the same period. I already have 4 redpolls visiting my feeder for the past two days, plus at leat 60 PINE SISKINS.
As a small sidenote to yardlisters out there, the crossbill was my 206th bird for the yard here. In December I squeaked in a Long-eared Owl to the back deck for #205, so this is turning out to be a good winter for the yard! Good Birding! Tom G Tom Hince Wild Rose Guest House RR 1, 21298 Harbour Road Wheatley, ON N0P 2P0 Canada home: (519) 825-9070 mobile: (519) 981-5994 E mail: pelee...@netcore.ca Web: www.netcore.ca/~peleetom/webdoc11.htm _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list ONTBIRDS@hwcn.org For instructions to join or leave ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdssetup.php ONTBIRDS Guidelines may be viewed at http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdsguide.php
